# AI Ethics, Tariffs, and X's Ad Strategy

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-03-07

## Transcript

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Young Sherlock, lawyer original series.
Yet unseen.
You have Prime Video.
X is testing a new ad format that connects posts with products.
I'm Imran Shake, and it's your daily crunch featuring three big tech headlines starting right now.
Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the U.S.
government on Friday over its extraction of tariffs from global businesses.
Now, the gaming giant is seeking a refund for any duties it paid due to President Donald Trump's executive orders that invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
This lawsuit filed in the U.S.
Court of International Trade comes after a Supreme Court decision struck down the tariffs that the President imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, arguing that he exceeded his authority.
More than a thousand other companies have already sued for refunds on the tariffs that they pay.
According to Nintendo's complaint, viewed by TechCrunch, these tariffs have resulted in the collection of over 200 billion dollars on imports in total.
We can confirm that we have filed a request, Nintendo told TechCrunch in a statement.
It continued, we have nothing else to share on the topic.
In response to the Supreme Court's decision, which he called extraordinarily anti-American, President Trump raised tariffs from 10 to 15%.
Now, 24 states have sued to argue that the President has once again overstepped the limits of his power by making this change.
Claude's daily active users are on the rise on mobile devices, as are its new app installs following the company's fallout with the Pentagon.
Now, after Anthropic CEO Dario Amade refused to allow the government to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons, a la Skynet, the AI model provider behind Claude was marked as a supply chain risk.
Ahaha, however, Anthropic's stance led many consumers to favor the model data suggests.
App Intelligence provider App Figures reports that the US downloads of Claude's mobile app continue to surpass those of ChatGPT.
I mean the most recent figures for March 2nd show Claude with 149,000 daily downloads compared with 124,000 for good old ChatGPT, the company's estimates indicate.
Now, while download figures offer a window into how many new users are installing the app for the first time, active users offer insight into how many people are actually using it.
On that front, another market intelligence provider, similar web, found that Claude's app on iOS and Android devices saw 11.3 million daily active users on March 2nd, up 183% from the start of the year when usage was around 4 million and up from 5 million daily active users at the beginning of February.
Claude's growth put it ahead of other AI apps by daily active users like Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, but not other top rivals like ChatGPT.
This is partially due to the fact that Claude's jump in usage began later in the month, timed around the news of Enthropic's tense negotiations with the Pentagon.
Now, if these trends continue throughout March, it could rank higher well, well, X is testing a new ad format that inserts a recommendation directly underneath a post that references the company or its products.
The initial test, spotted by an ex-user in Europe, displayed a suggestion to get Starlink beneath a post from a user that said Starlink satellite service works great in Portugal.
The link, when clicked, directed users to, well, you guessed it, Starlink's website.
Ex-head of product Nikita Beer confirmed the test, responding, trying to make an ad product that isn't an ad.
The Starlink ad is not visible to all users at this time, but the placeholder where the ad sits is.
If you visit X user at level SIO's post for March 6th, screenshot it at TechCrunch.com, you'll see an outlined box beneath the text of his post.
Now this box currently showcases a random X post, unless you're in the market where the test is live.
In places where the ad displays, several commenters notice the new addition.
The test follows news earlier this week that the company is rolling out paid partnership labels for creators.
The labels can be applied to posts to comply with regulations around social media advertising instead of requiring creators to use a hashtag like ad or paid partnership.
Well, if creators sponsored posts were to be combined with an embedded link to an advertiser like the one being tested, X could potentially attract more marketers to the platform.
That could boost creators' use of the app, allowing it to better compete against larger social networks favored by creators like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
Hey, Berlin.
Wusst du that bewegen kannst?
Then je mehr den Ökostrom der Berliner Stadtwerke beziehen, desto mehr können wir gemeinsam für unsere Stadt tun.
Denn die Berliner Stadtwerke investieren direkt hier vor Ort in eine saubere Stromversorgung.
Berliner Stadtwerke.